In 1960, the free jazz pioneered by Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Horace Tapscott and a very few others was rejected by many musicians and most listeners. For the visionary saxophonist, clarinetist and flutist Eric Dolphy, it was simply new music fed by the mainstream, a logical extension of the jazz tradition. In Far Cry without leaving form behind, he incorporated the spirit of adventure and abandon with which free jazz at its best infused freshness into jazz. Recording with a pianoless quartet that used Ron Carter’s cello as the other melody instrument, Dolphy worked from chord patterns developed within structures that depart from ordinary 32-bar jazz and popular song forms. He used 30-bar, 35-bar and 18-bar structures, but he also observed standard practice with 12-bar blues, “Serene.” Dolphy’s speech-like improvisations and Carter’s bowed or plucked cello solos soar over the impeccable and responsive accompaniments of bassist George Duvivier and drummer Roy Haynes. – Press Release

“On this session, Eric Dolphy teamed up with drummer Roy Haynes, bassist George Duvivier and cellist Ron Carter. Carter's cello lends the proceedings an intimate chamber jazz feel, and his arco double stops bridge the gap between chordal and melody instrument. The leader shows his prowess on clarinets and flute as well as alto … his flute solos (particularly on Randy Weston's ballad "Sketch of Melba") are every bit as muscular and colourful as those played on the other horns. The opening title track features tight ensemble work from Carter and Dolphy, leading into a typically pyrotechnic alto excursion from the leader. Here he settles on a series of phrases that are all slight variations on each other, like a Philip Glass arrangement of a Charlie Parker solo.

The other alto feature is "Feathers", a mournful ballad which comes on like a cross between one of Mingus's ballads and a Coleman dirge. Carter's pizzicato chording shadows Dolphys' statement of the melody before the leader lets rip with a solo crammed with trills, soulful cries and mercurial bop runs. Mingus's "Eclipse" is in similar mode; Carter's mournfully sour cello meshes with the leaders clarinet and Duvivier's bowed bass, ending up with a wonderfully atmospheric coda. Haynes manages to propel without overpowering; on "17 West" he manages to power proceedings with just brushes and snare, erupting into a brief solo before the unexpected long fadeout.

Throughout, the instrumental combinations throw up beautiful clashes and consonances; much like Henry Threadgill's work with cellos, tubas and so on. Theres a sense of a proper Third Stream being mined here, and it says much for Dolphy's vision that such combinations are still the stuff of surprise 40 odd years later.” – BBC Music